5 bad excuses for not travelling with kids

If I had a pound for every time I heard this I could buy a flight around the world, in first class. The interesting answer is yes, it can, but so can buying a car, gadget, or any number of must haves that we don’t really need. All of which drop in value the minute you purchase them, when experiences actually expand accumulatively.

Travel is an investment, and the best one you can make in your kids. Yes, a good education, good shoes and good nutrition are very valuable, but life without travel is just one colour; it’s what I call “living yellow.”

When you travel you get to brush up against something blue, and for the rest of your life you know blue exists; and you know it comes in shades, like Aegean, arctic, peacock, Persian and ocean blues. You, also, now know how to make green.

Flights can be expensive, but that’s an excuse not a reason not to go; consider getting there overland, or think of creative ways to enjoy domestic travel. Make it a priority, and travel less frequently in order to go big, Consider renting out your own home while travelling, it can be a simple way to make your adventure pay.

We let out our house to travel across America from LA to New York, over seven weeks and through 11 states, the rent was our weekly budget and arguably we spent less each week than the cost of staying at home.

There are ways to circumnavigate costs, staying with friends and family, house lets or swaps and camping, lower accommodation costs; traveling overnight, kids go free options, air miles, and getting around the way families in the host country do, all considerably cut costs.

The day we were in New York to fly home from that road trip across America we wanted to go into the city from the airport hotel. All the transport links on offer were too expensive for us. But we knew the people working in the hotel couldn’t possibly afford to get to work by those routes, so we found a porter and asked his advice. We got the MTA Q8 bus and the city subway (kids go free) return trip for $8.60, for all three of us.

The statistics just aren’t on your side in this argument. Also, wherever you go people, with families, live where you’re going and it is only as dangerous for you as it is for them. They may have a local knowledge you don’t but they are willing to share it, I promise you. You can get sick or injured staying at home, and if you go abroad you reduce your chances of having an accident at home.

I have travelled with an asthmatic and allergic child abroad precisely because a doctor said a change in air could have benefits, because where we lived was making my son sick.

Break the fear of danger down, cross out all those places you really think are dangerous and them pick one of the hundreds of places still open to you. Fear is a primal instinct that kicks in as a warning of potential danger, which can be useful used judiciously, harnessed by the rational. Otherwise it just messes up our lives, distorting the way we look at ourselves, and the people around us. See beyond the danger, after all we are grown ups and strong enough to manage all the problems that may crop up.